Sunday, February 8, 2009

My First Quilt Block!

My cousin is an award-winning quilter. I have decided to try and learn from her while I'm still in California, finishing up college. I took a class at Material Possessions, in Lake Forest, CA the other night. In the class, called No Longer Clueless with Carol Madden, I make my very first quilt block, and the first thing I've ever produced on a sewing machine. 
Here are my first four blocks, starting left with the one I made in the class.

It's a pretty pitiful block, and I screwed up in a few places, but I was so proud of myself. 
The second block I ever made!

The next day, I met my cousin at her quilting studio and she helped me repeat the process and make another block. With her one-on-one attention, the block was 100x better than my first attempt. Then I made another, and another.
The third.

I am hooked! I love the fabrics and deciding how they'll go, then changing you mind the minute the pieces start to come together. What a relaxing, creative hobby!
The fourth.

I'm going to make my blocks into a sampler quilt (I won't be including my first block in that quilt, too crooked!) and depending on the size, I'll either try and learn to machine quilt it together or send it to someone who will do a quick and dirty cheap quilting for me. It's my first quilt, made with cheap fabrics so I could practice, and I don't want to spend too much money on getting it sandwiched together. I'll save that for a better one =)

4 comments:

  1. Your blocks are looking great! Hope you will continue to enjoy quilting - it's an awful lot of fun and you get some nice quilts in the bargain. Glad you stopped by my blog.

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  2. Thanks Libby! I wanted to get a good sampling of quilters who blog so I could begin sharing my progress - I love this hobby already - I'm in trouble!

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  3. Quilting is addicting and stash well that is addicting as well. I started off with Fat Quarters. lol

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  4. That feeling of excitement about creating something out of "nothing", plus falling in love with the colors and patterns of fabric will keep you going deeper and deeper into the world of quilting. Welcome, Leigh.

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